It's my day job...

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

A new adventure is always exciting, and this month saw me take a step into nonfiction writing for kids. There are a lot of choices to be made in how to present information in a age-appropriate and accurate but engaging way.

The book began years ago as I started looking around my own yard and neighborhood and the variety of spiders at work there. As a Canadian newly living in the Pacific Northwest, there were some new (and poisonous) spiders I wanted to know about. I spent years following these little specialists around with my camera, and eventually realized I had also learned some fascinating things about the world of spiders.

I am very proud of this book, and very curious to see how young readers and the adults around them react. Why? Because not everyone loves spiders.

When I took the proof along on a classroom visit last week, half the class was excited and the other half sat back. The teacher took a half step back too. A fear of spiders is one of the most common fears people have and it may take some knowledge and some work to overcome that fear in order to learn more about this remarkable creatures.

We live in an amazing world. Exploring it means we sometimes encounter the cool, the fantastic, the bizarre, the slimy and the creepy. But it's also exciting to see how each animal and plant fits into the big picture in the roles they play and the services they provide to us.

Spiders are an amazing family of animals that keep our world a little cleaner, a little more healthy, and a whole lot more interesting. My hope is that this book, and this series, will engage families to explore their own worlds and the many forms of life around them.

Friday, November 3, 2017

After several delays (and some horrible weather that delayed the launch announcements), SINK OR SWIM released this fall and is available again to share with young readers.

I am especially excited that SINK OR SWIM, the sequel to WHEN PIGS FLY, is available again after being out of print for over 5 years. It's a fun summer-time story with the same can-do attitude and a story of tackling obstacles with the help of friends.

Once again, I want to thank Rogé Girard, illustrator extraordinaire, and UnaLuna Books, publishers of the Spanish editions of these two titles, for their help in bringing this book back to readers. It would not have made it back to bookshelves without their generous help.

Read on!

Best regards,
Valerie

P.s. The link will take you to the US Amazon listing. This is not an affiliate link - it's simply provided for your convenience. And if your book happens to arrive with any flaws PLEASE request a replacement from Amazon. They will provide a return shipping label for your convenience and send a new copy. Thank you.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

This story has had its share of adventures but I'm happy to announce that the award-winning picture book, WHEN PIGS FLY, is available in print (and for Kindle) again and is ready to continue its adventure as a story of encouragement and optimism in the face of doubters.

I want to say a special thank you to Rogé Girard, the fantastically talented illustrator of this story, and to Unaluna, publishers of the Spanish edition of both WHEN PIGS FLY and SINK OR SWIM. This adventure could not have continued without their help.

My thanks to all that have enjoyed and share this story over the years. Teachers, parents and young readers have been so encouraging in their reception of this book and it's fantastic artwork, and we can't thank you enough!

Read on!

Best regards,
Valerie

P.s. The link will take you to the US Amazon listing. This is not an affiliate link - it's simply provided for your convenience. And if your book happens to arrive with any flaws PLEASE request a replacement from Amazon. They will provide a return shipping label for your convenience and send a new copy. Thank you.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

I do promise to get back to the personality problem but after attending an author talk at an area bookstore the other day (which was outstanding!), here's something I decided to share in the meantime.

HOW TO LOVE AN AUTHOR: A Few Random Thoughts1. Send them chocolate or coffee. If you want to add some extra love, find out which one they prefer. (Note: random packages left on their doorstep are just creepy and may be ignored unless the chocolate/coffee stash is desperately low.)

2. Buy their book(s). At a public reading or signing if possible. Nothing is a truer reality of being an author (unless you're J.K. Rowling or Judy Blume) than being ignored by the general public in a bookstore.

3. Don't stand at their shoulder with trivial questions (up to and including whether the mortgage has been paid or where the children are) when they are in the throes of creative genius. And yes, that may look like they're just staring into space.

4. Talk about their book. (Hint: Strangers in the grocery line are, in essence, a captive audience.)

5. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. No need to stalk them but a follow's a nice touch.

6. Post a review. Hopefully kind but definitely honest.

7. Bring their book to book club.

8. Start a book club.

9. Visit your local book store and ask if they carry work by the author. Change your disguise each time you go.

10. Tell them when you love their work. Gushing suspicious but still welcome ...

Monday, July 4, 2016

There is a classic stereotype of a writer, locked away in a dim room, staring at a single screen as they shut the world out in order to produce a new one. And honestly, I'm okay with that.

Why? I am an introvert. No matter which personality type test or quiz you show me, I will always come down heavily on the "people drain me" side of the scale.

A lot of people are a little skeptical (or just scoff outright) when I admit that. I enjoy people. I get along well with people. I can take on a crowd from a platform with relative ease, and can even do the mix-and-mingle well. I do a fun presentation with classrooms of all ages and sizes, and enjoy Q&A sessions and signings.

But when I finish those events, the quiet room with space for my imagination to be free sounds pretty sweet. And from my quiet space I see the publishing advice that says I need to have "platform" and be active in social media and I wish for a world where I didn't have to be a personality.

But that's wishful thinking, and I realized it when I took a query letter to my wonderful critique group the other day. The advice I got was, "You have a vibrant personality - you just need to convey that on paper." The nutshell? My writing had personality; my writing about myself did not. Good advice (as always) and it has had me thinking: how does personality really fit into a writing career?

For an author, there are different areas where personality shows up:

1. Voice (Personality in your Writing)

Ah, the elusive element that every editor wants but can't really define. And in fairness, I don't blame them. It's rather like true love - it can captivate you when you find it but it probably won't look like you expect it to either. The charm is often in the unexpectedness of it.

Voice goes beyond having the basics of writing structure mastered, and is really where the personality of your writing shows up. Voice comes in combinations - how you mix all the possible ingredients of writing to create a sound, a style, a feel that is unique to you as a writer. It might show up in your story pacing, in a visible richness to your prose, in a lyric phrasing that carries a subtle motif, or a unerring connection to the subculture of your characters. It might be your mastery of effective or unexpected punctuation, or a bare-bones clarity that cuts away all extraneous fluff.

Personally, I think there is freedom in finding your literary voice. It will reflect you in some way as a person but can go so far beyond your personality. How fun is that? The limits are lifted when you find your voice as a writer.

Do some writers seem to have a natural grasp of voice? Absolutely.
Can you develop voice? Certainly.
How?

By reading - prolifically - and saturating yourself in other writer's styles. And then, by writing - continuously - until the words and worlds that you produce contain echoes and flavors of the masters but create your own particular blend of story, vision, and word.

But once you've mastered your voice, and unfortunately for the introverts, you have to step outside your room and away from your screen and engage with the rest of the world if you want to see your dream of being an author take flight. And personality becomes a very different beast.

This is another "on paper" part of the equation and is arguably one of the hardest types of writing any writer has to produce. I personally think the reason it's so hard is because it straddles the line between our personality as an individual and the personality of our writing. Because we're supposed to be selling our idea and ourselves in the voice of our manuscript. And if those don't mesh, it sounds stilted and unnatural and has us pulling our proverbial hair out as rewrite stacks up on rewrite. (If you ever want to cringe over your writing, look back at your early cover letters. Youch.)

It's self promotion. To the introvert, it feels like self-aggrandization. (I have no idea how it feels to extroverts.) It really does make it seem easier to deal with live people. Which brings us to ...

3. Conferences, workshops & writing events (Personality with Peers)

Well, here's where we should be able to breathe easy among our own kind, right? Well, yes and no. You'll find your tribe. You'll connect with wonderful kindred spirits that "get" the excitement and the frustrations and the realities of being part of the writing world. You'll hear speakers and teachers that challenge you to the next level and remind you why you love what you do. You might even find the dream contact that lands you an incredible contract.

You'll also find the nervous, the ambitious, the aggressive, and the borderline narcissistic writers that have the constant question lurking behind their eyes, "How will you benefit MY career?" You'll find the usual mix of personalities. And depending on your own personality, you may walk out thinking, "I'm in the wrong line of work ... "

Hang in there, because at some point, you'll be the one in the limelight ...

4. Author events (Personality with the Public)

At some point, whether you are traditionally published or an indie author, you will have an opportunity to do an author event. (Here's where the introverts curl up or break out in a sweat (or both) and the extroverts say "YES! This is why I'm a writer!" :) ). It might be a book signing, a classroom visit, an author fair, a reading, or your own book launch. People enjoy meeting their favorite writers and hearing about the process of writing. Meeting a real live author can help teachers boost literacy and inspire classrooms. Think about it - the public is why you publish!!

Your own personality will play a big part in how you view these events, and knowing that can help you play to your strengths in these events too.

Or you can just swear off them entirely and stick to on-line interaction with the public through ...

5. Social media (Personality as Platform)

This is still the public, right? Yes. And no. Social media - blogs, FB, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on and so on - is a great place to connect with peers, with fans, with industry experts, and to provide a consistent arena for your writing while still maintaining a little distance. It, too, straddles the line between our own personalities and how that reflects in our writing. It's not on paper, but it's an "on paper" (written word) form of expressing our personalities.

Here, too, your personality will play a role. Can you be scintillating in 140 characters more than three times a day? Can you produce quality content on a daily/weekly/monthly basis? Can you connect with enough people to provide immediate connection to your latest and greatest publishing news? When you can, that's platform.

So let's review: does an author need a personality?

Really, in the end, it's a trick question. Every author has a personality. It's just that who you are as a person is not always irrevocably tied to your personality as a writer. Your combination of experience, training, motivations, and character traits will always be reflected in your writing but in your writing you can also step beyond your reality and into your imagination where the limits are lifted.

For aspiring and experienced authors, the question, then, is how can you mesh your writing career with the type of person you are? More on that soon.

Monday, February 8, 2016

There is a lot of information available on the internet and sometimes the challenge of protecting our writing time is sabotaged by the challenge of finding useful, pertinent, reputable, up-to-date, consistent resources. I have joined a multitude of emails lists, followed the rabbit hole of link bait, and scratched my head multiple times over seemingly conflicting advice over the years.

While this is only a top 3 list, and people will often find they connect better with one group or approach over another, here's my current go-to spots for great information, excellent advice and lots of writerly support.

Again, an absolute wealth of riches when it comes to writing, illustrating, revising and submitting for children's literature. They host a super supportive Facebook group also, plus have manuscript swaps, post contests, and keep a great group of resources available.

This is a membership group that only opens for admission at certain times of the year but the challenge is to write 12 picture book manuscripts in 12 months. It's a fantastic group of enthusiastic writers and illustrators, and the feedback is fun and encouraging.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Over
the last month or so, I have been focused on learning more about the
non-writing aspects of an author’s publishing experience. While I’ve found a
wealth of information through a variety of sources, I’ve also been taking part
in a significant number of webinars.Lots
of great information is available online in the form of webinars. Some require
a registration fee, others are offered for free. Your time has value, so how do
you maximize the benefit of a webinar?1. Register ASAP.Some
webinars offer a limited number of seats for any given webinar, and some
webinar programs can only handle a finite number of attendees. So if the
webinar is being offered by a poplar personality, there is a chance that you
may not find a slot. Register as soon as you think you might be interested. (Remember,
you are providing an email address that will put you on a mailing list. I’ve found
it useful to be on a couple presenter’s mailing lists, but there’s always an
unsubscribe button.)2. Register anyways.Even
if you’re not sure you’ll be available during the live webinar (or if you’ve
miscalculated the time zone change), most webinars will offer a free replay
after the event for registered attendees. The replay will typically have a
limited window of availability but it gives you a chance to catch up or to
review your notes.3. Sign in early.The
day of the webinar, make sure you know where you filed your access link (usually
provided when you register). Then sign in 10-15 minutes ahead of the
scheduled start time. Why? Two reasons:First,
there may be some set-up work to do.

You may need to install an app to run the webinar. This doesn’t take long but
you want to allow time to be sure all the technical issues are settled at your
end (including making sure your webcam/microphone is muted so noise from your
end doesn’t distract others).

Presenters may provide a down-loadable resources (a “notebook”
or worksheets or pdf of some kind) to help you follow along, and you’ll
want them downloaded and open before you begin.

Familiarize yourself with the browser interface to know how to ask a question or leave a comment

Second,
webinars are sometimes a little like airlines – they’ll confirm more
participants than they have seats available (this is definitely more likely
with free webinars, btw). For a very popular topic or presenter, they may
simply max out before you get signed in. Signing in early makes sure you are
able to access the webinar.

4. Turn off distractions. Usually.

You
don’t want to miss the information you are there to hear. So minimize your
browser, mute your phone, whatever you need to do. (I’ll
get back to the "usually" bit in a minute.)

5. Be patient as things begin.

I’ve
run into two different time sinkholes as webinars begin: technical problems and
promo.

Technical problems. Hopefully,
the webinar presenter has made sure things are running smoothly at their end,
but sometimes hiccups happen. Or they need to respond to others that are having
difficulties. If the presenter doesn’t have a technical team behind them, this
can eat up minutes until everyone is ready to go.

Promo. Almost
every webinar I’ve ever attended starts with some sort of explanation of what
they will deliver or why you are there. (Hopefully, you know why you are there.)
They will cover their credentials, the need for the information they are about
to share, and what you will take away from the webinar. And they’ll do this
without actually telling you what you’re there to hear. (It’s kind of
impressive, actually). Sometimes, an associate or a host will handle this
section and there may even be a little rah-rah-get-the-crowd-interacting time.

So here’s where I say you should “usually” turn off the distractions. After you’ve attended a few webinars, or if you get familiar with a certain presenter’s style, you’ll know you might have a little time before you get to the meat of the presentation. And sometimes you’ll have a LONG time. I’ve attended several webinars of a very well-known presenter, and ON AVERAGE, it takes 15 minutes before anyone says “Let’s begin … “ (for one webinar, he didn’t even come on screen for 25 minutes!)

(This next bit is an aside. Feel free to skip ahead.)

It’s become a personal amusement of mine to time the
webinars to see when the content actually begins, and when it ends vs. when the
webinar ends. In fact, most of this post was written while listening to the
intro material for a webinar – 16 minutes 52 seconds before he said “Let’s
begin … ,“ and the content stopped (“There you have it!”) at 25 minutes and 25
seconds out of a 31 ½ minute webinar. 9 minutes of content in a 30 minute
webinar. Was it good content? Absolutely! But I’ve learned, with this
particular presenter, that I don’t need to hang onto every word of the intro to
get to the heart of the content. (The irony is that often the presenter will
tell you they know how busy your time is, but it has never shortened that lead
in time.)

But back to the webinar …

6. Take notes.

However
you retain information, be prepared to use more than one method to learn. Webinars by their nature offer listening (auditory) and watching (visual) but if you take
notes (kinetic), you will retain the information even more fully.

7. Ask questions.

Most
webinars offer either live questions or questions via comments so if you want
clarification, ask. It may or may not be answered, depending on how many questions
are submitted, but listen to the other’s questions as well. Extra information
always seems to come to light during these Q&A sessions.

8. Recognize they have something to sell.

Whether
it’s a program or product of their own, or an affiliate product they support,
you will most often be offered a special deal on a service or product. The presenter I
mentioned above will spend from 10-35 minutes on the sales portion of the
webinar.

Don’t get me wrong - it can be a great chance to get a reduced price
for a helpful product, but never forget you are looking at a sales pitch. (I'm probably the only one that keeps hearing, "But wait! There's more ... " as they talk.) Make
sure it will be right for your goals before you click the link!

9. Be grateful.

The
presenter has shared from their experience and expertise, and because of that,
you have an advantage – even if it’s just what NOT to do. Share a link or give
a social media shout out. At the very least, thank the presenter for their time
and sharing their information. It's good manners, it's
good practice, and it might even be good business.

10. Listen to the replay.

If
a replay is made available, take the opportunity to review the material. It
will “lock it in” a little better and give you the chance to fill in any
missing notes or pause the playback to do any suggested action steps.

11. Put it into action.

There
are volumes of great information available through webinars and the best way to
make the most of the time you invest in them is to put them to use! And who
knows – maybe one day you’ll be presenting webinars of your own.